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LECTURE 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

MARYLAND INSTITUTE 

/or il)t Iromotian of tijf JBcr Ijouic |lrts, ^ ' ^- b 

ON TUESDAY EVENING. MARCH 20, mo, 
B Y 

Hon. JOHN TYLER, ofVa. 

EX-PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES. 
SUBJECT: 

" The Prominent Characters and Incidents of our History from 1812 to 1816." 



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Published by order of the Institute. 



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BALTIMORE: 
PRINTED BY JOHN MURPHY & CO. 

No. 178 MARKET STREET. 
J 855. 






1 



T^T 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. President^ 

and Gentlemen of the Maryland Institute: 

The Institution over which you preside must enlist in its 
favor the warmest sympathies of every lover of humanity. 
Agriculture and the mechanic arts may be regarded as twin 
sisters, born at the same birth, and co-workers in all that relates 
to the good of man, his comfort, his refinement, his civiliza- 
tion. Without the first, the last has no active existence, — with- 
out the last, the earth is an unreclaimed wilderness, within 
whose dense forests no trace of improvement exists. Working 
perpetually together, they have their type in the Castor and 
Pollux of the ancient mythology. By their joint labors they 
reclaim the wilderness, cause the earth to give forth its bless- 
ings, build the populous city, construct the noble ship and 
freight it for distant ports, and make available in the great work 
of civilization, the primeval elements of fire, air and water. 
The curse pronounced upon our race, on the expulsion of our 
great progenitors from the garden, is almost annihilated through 
the substitution of manual labor by machinery, which seems 
often, in the complexity and yet perfect accuracy of its opera- 
tions, to be endowed with the principles of life and motion as 
inherent in itself, and independent of the will of man. Nor does 
the genius which presides over the department of the mechanic 
arts, confine itself to the fabrication of mechanical instruments 
and machines devoted to the great purposes of every day life. 



It springs forth into the boundless fields of the imagination — 
wings its flight through the mists of long past ages, and revivi- 
fies and restores through the magic touch of the brush, the 
pencil, and the chisel, the dust of the long since dead, and the 
images of things belonging to the past eternities. The Assyrian 
in the palaces of Nineveh — Belshazzar trembling at the hand- 
writing on the wall — Alexander in his glorious triumphs, and 
drunken orgies — the Ptolemies in their royal robes, and Cleopa- 
tra " who lost Mark Anthony the world." To say nothing of 
the subUme portraitures drawn from sacred sources, it connects 
the past with the present by exhibiting our own noble and god- 
like ancestors, along side of the liberty- loving men of other 
ages and of other climes, and crowns the whole with a halo of 
imperishable glory, by representing on the canvass George 
Washington of Virginia, surrendering his sword to the Congress 
at Annapolis, Maryland. 

When therefore, gentlemen, you were good enough repeat- 
edly to express the belief, that my presence here would contri- 
bute somewhat to the great objects of your institution, I 
resolved at all hazard of inconvenience to myself, to yield to 
your wishes. To the busy scenes of public life I have long 
since bid adieu — but I have not felt myself estranged from my 
species or my country, and therefore it would neither be deco- 
rous or becoming in me to refuse my aid, however small it may 
be, to any of the great purposes of social life. I felt also an 
especial ol)ligatiou resting upon me to obey a call from the 
representatives of one of the great departments of industry of 
this State; not only because of her close and thorough identifi- 
cation with the State of my nativity, but because of peculiar 
claims of gratitude which she possesses on myself, individually. 
In reviewing the past of a life, not devoid of incidents, I class 
among the most imperishable of my obligations of gratitude, 
the fact that this time-honored State cast twice upon me her 
high suffrage for the second most exalted political office in the 
gift of the confederacy. If there existed no other reason for 
my presence here to night, this, I am sure, would be sufficient 
in itself. 

I have selected as the subject of my address, a sketch of 
some of the most prominent characters and incidents of our 



history from 1S12 to 183G. I do this not only in compliance 
with the expressed wish that my lecture should be devoted to 
the subject of cotcmporancous history, but in obedience to the 
suggestions of my own feelings. There is nothing that so 
pleasingly fills the mind as those scenes in which we were 
engaged when life was young, and nothing which more en- 
grosses (he heart, than the great and distinguished men with 
whom it has been our good fortune to become acquainted in 
our progress through life. Youth has its pleasures in the pre- 
sent, but age lives in the past — youth is full of hope, and springs 
forth like the racer in the Olympic games. Age, on the con- 
trary, builds a shrine to memory, and there it delights chiefly 
to worship. From these remarks you will readily deduce the 
conclusion that my purpose is rather to speak of the dead, than 
of the living. Of the latter I shall in fact say nothing — nor do 
I propose to myself the invidious task of tracing acts to motives. 
In this last particular there is nothing which is so well calcu- 
lated to impair the value and intrinsic merits of cotemporaneous 
history. There are so many motives at work, ev^en unconsciously 
sometimes, and such a whirlwind of passion prevailing amid 
the party struggles of the day, that even the very best of men 
may be deceived as to the motives of others, and the pencil 
may be made to give forth what purports to be true impersona- 
tions, but which are either wretched caricatures, or something 
still more revolting and offensive. So it has happened that 
men whose every thought was devoted to the public good, have 
been for the time being regarded as plotters of mischief, and 
as absorbed only in selfish and detestable schemes of ambition. 
The history of the world is replete with instances of this, and 
the true characters of many whose names have been visited 
through centuries with (he greatest obloquy, and who have 
been looked upon by successive generations with loathing and 
contempt, are but now beginning to break " the cerements of 
the (omb," and to win (hat justice which ages have denied 
them. In illustration of this, we need go to no other history 
than that of England. The noble patriots who opposed the 
arbitrary exactions of Charles (he thst, have been denounced 
as rebels and traitors, and their names branded by historians 
and poets — and yet at this day (he inscription on the tomb of 



6 

BradshaWj of "resistance to tyrants is obedience to God," is 
written on the heart of every freeman. How loud and un- 
ceasing were the denunciations heaped upon the name of 
Oliver Cromwell by cotemporary historians: and yet that man, 
reviled by historians, and by poets '' damned to everlasting 
fame," now that the mist is rolling away, and his true motives 
and character come to be developed, begins to be regarded, if 
he is not already so, as among the foremost of England's greatest 
warriors and statesmen — as one whose iron-hearted courage was 
not more conspicuous on the field of Naseby, than was his 
policy as protector of England in increasing her wealth, her 
power and renown. A few more touches from the pen of 
Carlysle, and the shade which has heretofore enveloped his 
name will have passed away forever. If it be a fact, as I have 
seen it stated, that he has been denied a place among the 
sovereigns of England in the adornments of the new parliament 
house, that very circumstance will lead to wider enquiry and 
broader examination. As did the absence from the public pro- 
cession through the streets of Rome, of the statues of Brutus 
and Cassius in the time of Augustus, cause universal remark 
and commentary, so the vacant panel on which should be ex- 
hibited the features of the great commander and protector of the 
commonwealth of England, will be gazed upon until "Old 
Noll," such as he was in life, shall become familiar in every 
feature to the lover of liberty and the hater of tyranny. Other 
illustrious examples might be cited, of those condemned by co- 
temporaneous history, who in after times have challenged the 
admiration of the world. It becomes at length to be questioned 
whether even crooked-back Richard, who on the mimic boards 
we have so often seen disturbed in his sleep before the day of 
Bosworth field, by the spectres of those he is charged with 
having murdered — and whose agony and despair and death, 
we have so often hailed with loud acclaim, was the accursed 
and hateful wretch which his cotemporaries have represented 
him to be. Court had to be paid to Richmond, and the throne 
preserved in the line of his descendants; and the readiest mode 
of accomplishing both these ends, was to pile obloquy on the 
name of his most formidable rival, until all should unite in pro- 
nouncing Henry VII the rightful wearer of the crown. Nor 



had these motives ceased to exist in the time of Shakespeare. 
A Tudor in the person of Ehzaheth sat upon (he throne — and 
the great dramatic poet felt it to be no disparagement to him- 
self to delineate the character of a consummate hypocrite and 
tyrant in the person of Richard, while Harry VIII, steeped in 
the innocent blood of his almost numberless wives, should be 
exhibited on the stage as a ruler of iron will, and of inflexible 
justice. I shall then leave to the historian the task of deducing 
motives from the acts of which I may briefly speak, and in 
delineating the actor, if I cannot praise I shall not condemn. 
Fortunately there is but little cause for personal censure for all 
the period through which I shall hastily glance. Of what trans- 
pired subsequent to 1836, 1 will not trust myself to speak. Let 
that be the task of others — a task which I trust will not be 
performed until all passion and all feeling shall have passed 
away and been forgotten — then let the arm of justice be bared, 
and its sword fall upon the heads that may deserve the blow. 
The antecedents to the war of 1812 had greatly excited the 
public mind, and called forth men of high and cultivated talents 
from all parts of the country, to take their share in the great 
responsibilities engendered by the times. There was an up- 
rising of the masses against the lawless aggressions committed 
on the commerce and persons of our citizens by two of the 
great belligerents, the clash of whose arms resounded all over 
the world. The contest for supremacy prevailed over ocean 
and over land; and while the bloody encounters at Trafalgar 
and the Nile, had caused the flag of England to float in triumph 
over the water, the heavy tramp of the victorious cohorts of 
France were heard amid the pyramids of Egypt and the sands 
of the desert, and shortly after, on the distant plains of Europe. 
Each warred on neutral rights, and both had given abundant 
cause of displeasure to the United States. From France we 
experienced all the evils arising from a violation of all the laws 
regulating blockade — while our ships upon the high seas were 
seized by British cruisers and condemned, and confiscated by 
British courts of admiralty, by virtue of false and despotic inter- 
polations on the national code. Nor did the grievance stop here. 
She claimed and exercised the right to search our ships on the 
high seas, and seizing upon their sailors, under the stale and 



8 

• 

now, as 1 hope, obsolete pretext, that " once a subject always 
a subject," forced not only naturalized citizens, but native born 
Americans, either to serve on board her public ships, or be 
incarcerated in gloomy dungeons. Every expedient had been 
resorted to by those entrusted with the management of public 
affairs to avoid a resort to arms. Measures of a questionable 
character on the score of sound policy, but proceeding from an 
anxious and praise-w^orthy desire to preserve the public peace, 
had been resorted to by the government, but as in the days 
preceding the revolutionary war, every overture and demonstra- 
tion on our part was met by renewed and aggravated insult 
and wrong — and nothing remained but a resort to the sword. 
With a gallantry characteristic of Americans, they selected as 
their antagonist that nation, which because of her supremacy 
on the ocean, was the strongest and most formidable. On the 
stirring incidents which followed, it is not necessary to dwell. 
Our gallant navy, which had been ridiculed on the floor of 
Parliament, as consisting of a few cock-boats with bits of striped 
bunting floating at their mast-heads, illumined the ocean and 
the lakes with their victories, and inflicted a terrible retribution 
on the commerce of the enemy — while the war on land, which 
had been prosecuted with varied success, was closed by two 
brilliant achievements, the one at North Point in sight of this 
city, where untrained valor triumphed over disciplined regi- 
ments — and the other at New Orleans, under the lead of that 
great captain who never knew defeat, either on the field of 
batde or in personal conflict. I remember well the intensity 
of interest amounting almost to agony, which pervaded the 
State of Virginia, when after having achieved almost a blood- 
less victory in the capture of the Federal City, the proud and 
haughty enemy, led on by a bold and spirited leader, turned his 
arms against this city, the commercial emporium of the south. 
Yirginia remembered the days of the revolution, when her 
battalions had contested on many a hard fought field, with 
those of Maryland, for the palm of glory. Her troops, led on by 
one of the most gallant of her sons, hastened to the expected 
scene of action, and occupying the position assigned them, 
stood ready to conquer or die by the side of their gallant 
brothers. General John Pegram, their commander, was the 



9 

impersonation of valor and patriotism. There beat in his heart 
an undying love of country and of f?lory, and if the brave 
troops of Maryland had not terminated the day, at an early 
hour, by the death of the commander of the British troops, I 
hazard nothing in saying that the graphic sketch, by Shakspeare, 
of the death of the Duke of York and the noble Earl of Suf- 
folk on the field of Agincourt, would have been reaUzed by 
many a Marylander and Virginian, 

" Sufiblk first died, and York all haggled over, 
Comes to him where in gore he lay insteep'd. 
And takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes 
That bloodily did yawn upon his face. 
And cries aloud — ' Tarry dear Cousin Suffolk, 
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven — 
Tarry sweet soul for mine, then fly abreast 
As in this glorious and well-foughten field 
We kept together in our chivalry.' " 

The battle of New Orleans closed the war amid a blaze of 
glory, and the proclamation of peace, which soon after followed, 
filled the country with joy. The bloody field of Waterloo had 
been fought and won, and peace once more revisited the world. 

The transition from a state of war to one of peace, which 
brings so many blessings in its train to the country, nevertheless 
devolves upon Government no easy task. The reduction of 
every thing to a peace establishment, involving of necessity the 
throwing out of employment vast numbers of persons; the 
task of discriminating between the equally meritorious in the 
selection for continued service; the apportioning the Government 
expenditures among different branches of service; the abolish- 
ing certain taxes and the modification of others to suit a period 
of peace, and at the same time the making provision to redeem 
the heavy debts which a war with a power so formidable as 
Great Britain necessarily superinduces, are all matters of the 
greatest moment, and at the same time of great difliculty. 
Talent of the highest order was quite as necessary for this work 
as for a vigorous prosecution of the war, and the fourteenth 
Congress was composed very much of the same men as had 
distinguished themselves in the stirring and exciting debates 
which had occurred as well before as after the war had been 
declared. The House of Representatives was a model as- 
2 



10 

sembly for order, in all its proceedings. A sound from the 
speaker's hammer brought it to order in the midst of excite- 
ment, and the ascription of an improper motive to a member, 
or to a co-ordinate department, was immediately rebuked, 
and the decorum of the House vindicated. I do not mean 
to say that the debates were not often characterized by 
much warmth — on the contrary, there was no restraint imposed 
on the freest and fullest canvass of measures; but, in the very 
storm and whirlwind of passion, there was no forgetfulness 
when a co-ordinate department of the Government was assailed, 
or the opinions expressed by a member in debate came to be 
answered, of what was due on the score of courtesy to the one 
or the other. The weapons of wit and ridicule were often 
resorted to, but then those weapons were of " the ice brook 
temper," of a keen and polished edge, such as gentlemen 
might use for attack or defence, and contrasted favorably with 
the broad-axe or double-handled sword, which inflict hideous 
wounds, and degrade the combatants as well as the public as- 
sembly to which they may belong. Langdon Cheves, of South 
Carolina, had filled the speaker's chair of the preceding Con- 
gress with a dignity and intellect which, while it won for him 
the respect and admiration of all, caused a general regret that 
one so well calculated to illustrate and adorn any station under 
the Government, should have voluntarily abandoned its service 
and sought — probably with true wisdom — the calm and repose 
of more retired life. Over that House, at the time to which I 
refer, presided one who seemed formed for the station and the 
station made for him. To commanding talents he united an 
urbanity, with a decision of character, which commanded the 
respect of the House, and awed into subjection to rule, the most 
refractory. He had enlarged his reputation by brilliant efforts 
on the floor of both Houses of Congress, and his speakership 
may properly be referred to, as a period when to have held a 
seat in the House of Representatives constituted an epoch in 
any man's life. That man was Henry Clay. Let me speak 
of him in a manner worthy of myself and just to him. He 
had received the impress in early life of the fervid and glowing 
eloquence of Mr. Henry, and had profited greatly by it. He 
was a conspicuous leader of the republican hosts that had 



11 

elevated first Mr. Jefferson, ar\d afterwards Mr. Madison to ihe 
Presidency, and his voice soxmded as a clarion in the ears of 
their adversaries. Nature had bestowed upon him in profusion 
her gifts. He added to an intellect of the highest order a 
commanding person, and his voice, and gesture, and manner 
were those best calculated to sway the action of a popular 
assembly. Had he lived in the time of Pericles his name 
would have found a place of high eminence in Athenian his- 
tory. On the floor of that House were to be found, contesting 
the leadei-ship with Mr. Clay and rivalling him in public confi- 
dence, John C Calhoun and William Lowndes, both of South 
Carolina, and amongst the most eminent men that the age 
produced. The power of condensation of the first in express- 
ing his ideas, which was almost as great as that of a lens by 
which all the rays of light are brought to a focus, was equalled 
by the vast range of information possessed by the other, which 
caused him to be regarded as the Mentor of the House; and no 
man listened to him without obtaining new views and a more 
enlarged understanding of the subject under discussion. Mr. 
Calhoun was early called to the head of the War Department, 
and the great ability he displayed in that office is well known 
to the country. He brought order out of chaos, and presenting 
and preserving the outlines of his system, so arranged them, 
that recruits in case of war have only to muster into line and 
the army is complete. As a debater and writer he had but few, 
if any, superiors. In both departments his conclusions were 
drawn from a coui-se of reasoning so logical and precise, that it 
was almost impossible to strike out a sentence without destroy- 
ing the symmetry of the whole production. At a much later 
period of bis life I had occasion fully to appreciate the power 
of his mind in the great aid he rendered in a high department 
of the Government. 

William Lowndes soon after fell a victim to a relentless 
disease, but not until he had left in the law establishing the 
sinking fund, a monument which will speak to future ages of 
consummate ability and statesmanship. He wanted the adven- 
titious advantages of grace of person and of manners, and yet 
he was the most engaging of men. He passed away from 
earth at the time that the most brilliant prospects of political 



12 

elevation were opening upon him. Daniel Webster, then a 
representative of a district from New Hampshire, had ah-eady 
made a deep impression upon the public mind — but that broad 
and expansive intellect had at the moment but little room for 
display, as it was engaged in sustaining a cause which at the 
time had sunk into a hopeless minority. At an after day its 
full volume was exhibited, and drew upon him the eyes of the 
civilized world. It may truly be said of him that at the forum 
he had but few co-rivals. He wore his senatorial cloak with a 
dignity never surpassed; and upon his transfer to the State 
Department, the coat of diplomacy was so admirably fitted and 
adjusted to his person, that it seemed destined from the first for 
his especial wearing. John Randolph was also there, blazing 
like a comet through the heavens and throwing off scintilla- 
tions of wit and genius, until his course in debate was paved 
with stars. How often has he been seen to enter the house 
booted and spurred, and with his riding whip in his hand, just 
at the moment that the Speaker had stated the question for the 
decision of the House, after a three weeks' discussion, when his 
penetrating voice would arrest the vote by the enquiry, — " What 
is the question, Mr. Speaker? " and while the speaker would be 
restating the question, would advance to his desk and reopen 
the discussion by one of those brilliant speeches which would 
electrify the House and revive its exhausted energies. In that 
House you would also have seen men, constituting a galaxy in 
themselves, who would justly have held a high place in any 
assembly upon earth. General Sam. Smith, of Maryland, 
with his varied stores of mercantile knowledge, to instruct the 
House in all that related to commerce; Governor Wright, the 
representative of the chivalry and patriotism of the same State; 
John Forsyth, of Georgia, who performed in after life so distin- 
guished a part; Mr. Grovesnor, of New York, who wore in 
off-hand debate the most polished armor; Hopkinson, of Penn- 
sylvania, the author of our national air, who, to refinement of 
mind, added the accomplishments of the gentleman; Gaston, of 
North Carolina, whose memory is precious in the recollections 
of the State that gave him birth; the chivalrous Richard M. 
Johnson, of Kentucky, whose " many scars " aUested his 
bravery and patriotism; Henry St. George Tucker, Philip P. 



13 

Barbour, and Daniel SheflTey, of Virginia, each distinguished 
for a logical acumen in debate rarely ever surpassed; and there 
too was Timothy Pickering, who carried you back to the days 
of the elder Adams; and Pitkin, from Connecticut, ready upon 
all questions involvmg statistical knowledge. Time is not 
allowed me to dwell on their respective merits, or to enumerate 
others — some of whom are still living — whose names will find 
honorable menlion in history. Such was the House of Repre- 
sentatives of the fourteenth Congress, and such tlie men who 
composed it. Its second session was held during the last 
winter of Mr. Madison's presidential term, and the fourth of 
March ensuing witnessed the inauguration of a new era in the 
installation of Mr. Monroe. He had been elected by universal 
acclamation, — and if a self-sacrificing devotion to the public 
good ever entitled any man to that high honor, Mr. Monroe 
richly deserved it. At a most critical period of the war he had 
the double duty of Secretary of State and Secretary of War to 
encounter, and his labors were truly herculean. By day and 
by night, at all and every hour, that admirable patriot was to 
be found in his oflfice, despatching troops and supplies to 
exposed points, digesting plans for military operations, or pour- 
ing over army returns; and still he knew no rest until the sound 
of the victorious cannon at New Orleans gave assurance that 
the last battle had been fought and won. The unanimity with 
which he was elected to the Presidency, gave proof that the 
party struggles which had so long divided public sentiment were 
all the same as ended. Those contests which had lasted so 
many years, between the Federal and Republican parties, 
might well be termed the war of the giants. Beginning under 
the lead of Jefferson and Hamilton, on opposite sides, other 
leaders of nearly equal talents had arisen from time to time to 
lead on the embattled hosts; and the onslaught between them 
during the war with Great Britain, had reached its acme of 
violence. The banner of the Federal party, which had so long 
floated in gallant but doubtful contests, went down, and that of 
its opponent waved in undisputed triumph. The great error of 
the Federal party was in its opposition to the war, which, 
undertaken in maintenance of the honor of the country, had 
enlisted in its support the great body of the people. Tlic appeal 



14 

was made to the spirit of an indignant patriotism^ and that 
appeal vibrated in every vein and beat in every artery. Canute 
the Great bade the sea at its flood retire from his feet, and 
Xerxes scourged the Hellespont and threw chains into it to still 
its waves and fetter the flow of its waters, — and yet the sea 
advanced, and the billows lifted their white caps to the clouds, 
and the waters rushed on upon their way, as if in mockery of 
the puny efforts made to enchain them; and so was it with 
public sentiment in that memorable war. 

The calm which had succeeded the storm was not of long 
continuance. Peace has its excitements as well as war, and 
the questions continually arising soon engendered opposing 
opinions, and gave birth to opposite factions; but up to 1819 
every conflict of opinion had resolved itself into a question of 
policy or elementary principle. Nothing had arisen to disturb 
the repose of the sections. All at once, however, there had 
arisen a cloud of terrific import. That division of the country 
into sectional parties, to which every lover of his country had 
looked with fear and apprehension, had for the first time in our 
history arisen. Missouri, having attained maturity^ asked for 
admission into the Union as an independent State. She was 
met by attempts to restrain her free and sovereign will, and to 
force upon her a system of internal police, at war with her 
domestic institutions. The alarm bell, as Mr. Jefferson ex- 
pressed it, had sounded, and the sections stood in array facing 
each other. From 1819 to 1821 the Missouri question, as it 
was called, occupied all thoughts, and an excitement indescri- 
bably great often prevailed in the House of Representatives. 
Most of the old members of 1816 had gone into retirement; 
Clay and Randolph still remained, and General Wm. Henry 
Harrison — with the laurels he had won at the Thames and 
elsewhere blooming then fresh upon his brow — had become a 
member. His advocacy of the right in regard to all the 
States, consigned him, upon the expiration of the Congress to 
which he had been elected, to a temporary ostracism ; — so blind 
to all light and so deaf to the expostulations of wisdom is the 
eye and ear of faction in its mad rage. The Senate had 
imdergone corresponding changes. Maryland was at the time 
represented by two men who would have done honor to the 



15 

proudest State in any age of the world; (hey were William 
Pinkney and Edward Lloyd. The liist, classical in style and 
manner, magnificent in rhetoric and resistless m logic — the last, 
stern and inflexible in his principles, noble and generous in his 
bearing; and, while too honest to conceal an indignant sense of 
wrong, mild, conciliating and tranquil in the midst of excite- 
ment. The discussion which had sprung up in the Senate on 
the Missouri question called upon Mr. Pinkney for a full 
display of all those wonderful talents he was known to possess. 
After a protracted debate, in which most of the Senators had 
joined — among whom was Rufus King, whose exalted character 
dignified the station which he filled, and whose advocacy of the 
Missouri restriction gave additional and weighty sanction to a 
great wrong — Mr. Pinkney announced his purpose to reply. 
The scene which the Senate chamber presented the day on 
which he addressed the Senate, is not to be forgotten by one 
who had the good fortune to look upon it. The exciting theme, 
united to the fame of the orator, had caused an immense crowd 
to repair to the Capitol at an early hour, and every seat in the 
Seucite chamber was occupied before the hour for the meeting 
of the Senate had arrived, and the body of the chamber was 
overflowed by those who were permitted to fill all the avenues 
between the seats of the Senators. I remember the exultation 
of the southern and southwestern members in that triumphant 
vindication of truth and justice, and it added no little to the 
measure of gratification that the championship of equality 
among the States, as joint partners in all belonging to the 
Union, should thus have been assumed through its Senators by 
the State of Maryland. The effort of that day entitled Mr. 
Pinkney to be ranked among the greatest debaters and most 
eminent orators who had in any age appeared upon the stage of 
public affairs. The only regret experienced was, that a speech 
so brilliant in eloquence and conclusive in argument, should not 
have been perpetuated, either by a stenographer or by the pen 
of the distinguished senator himself. Tlie Missouri question, it 
is well known, was settled by the demarkation of a line beyond 
which the most important article of southern property should 
not be carried; and that law was passed over the heads and 
against the votes of fully nine-tenths of the southern delega- 



16 

tions. I mean not to venture into the political discussions of 
(his day; I have no denunciations to utter, no complaints to 
make; but I shall be permitted to say, that however impolitic 
and unjust at the time may have been the proceeding, it is a 
subject perhaps now to be regretted — in view of what has 
occurred since — that that line should not then have been made 
universal in its application to all the territory then possessed or 
at any future day to be acquired by the United States. Its 
observance in good faith on all sides would have been the har- 
binger of peace. 

Time is not allowed me to dwell on the interesting incidents 
that transpired between 1S21 and the installation of General 
Jackson into (he Presidency in 1 827, Having been foiled in 
his efforts to reach that office by the vote of the House of Re- 
presentatives, which elevated Mr. Adams over him, he led on 
the assaults against the administration without allowing it a 
moment of breathing time, and so unceasingly continued them, 
that by the expiration of the term, Mr. Adams' administration 
was entirely prostrate, and General Jackson was borne into the 
Presidency on the shoulders of the people. Of that extraor- 
dinary man it seems hardly necessary for me further to speak. 
His character and actions are indelibly engraven on the 
public memory. Suffice it at present to say that his first four 
years ghded on in comparative peace; the national republican 
party, as it was called, were his chief opponents, and his re- 
election to the Presidency was accomplished by so overwhelming 
a majority as nearly to have annihilated (he opposition. He 
had been brought into power and sustained for the second 
term by what was known as (he S(ate Rights party, but occur- 
rences were already in progress which were calculated to change 
all the sympathies of that party for the administration. It had 
stood in a phalanx of about fifteen, in the Senate, on all ques- 
tions of elementary principle. If a measure passed the two 
houses against its united vote in the Senate, and met with the 
veto of the President, as several did, the action of (he President 
was hailed with unbounded delight, and the two houses of 
Congress resounded with his praises. But it was destined to 
receive a blow which threatened for the time to prostrate forever 
their long cherished principles. You all remember, gentlemen, 



17 

the agitation of the public mind before and at the time of the 
issuing of the celebrated proclamation, arising out of the pro- 
ceedings of South Carolina, through her constituted organs. 
The discussion in the Senate between the talented Senators 
from South Carolina and Massachusetts — R. Y. Hayne and 
Daniel Webster — which is familiar even now to all the school- 
boys of the land, had preceded by some time the date of that 
celebrated State paper, and when the proclamation came after- 
wards to be thrown into the scale of that debate, on the side of 
the Senator from Massachusetts, South Carolina seemed to be 
left altogether alone to the mercy of her opponents. And yet 
she had done no more than issue a threat to nullify the law of 
Congress, commonly called the tariff law. That threat in 
those times, however, was enough to induce Congress to invest 
the President with dictatorial powerj the entire public trea- 
sury was placed at his disposal, together with all the military 
and naval forces of the country. Such was at that day the 
professed love of the Constitution, such the avowed sentiment 
of obedience to a law of Congress, that the Proclamation and 
Force bill — as the law to enforce South CaroHna to obe- 
dience was called — was received with one universal acclaim 
throughout the entire region of what were then known as the 
tariff and non-slaveholding States. South Carolina looked 
upon their proceedings with anxiety, but apparently without 
fear. She seemed to be preparing herself for the crisis, with a 
fixed determination to maintain her position and to run all 
hazards. Her 12,000 volunteers were constantly drilled under 
the eye of her gallant Governor, and the port and bearing of 
her Representatives in both Houses of Congress was lofty and 
erect. In the meantime the guns of Castle Pinkney, built for 
the protection of Charleston, were pointed at the city, and 
General Winfield Scott, that great commander of brigade, then 
a General, was placed in command of the military district. 
The Southern States became deeply and painfully moved at 
the prospect of not only the subjugation but virtual annihilation 
of one of its cluster of States. Those States disapproved the 
course of South Carolina, but they regarded the foundation 
principles of the Government as subverted by the proclamation, 
and the high tarifT system was equally obnoxious to them as 
3 



1^ 

to South Carolina. They had as strongly protested against 
that system as tyrannical, unjust, and oppressive. Theie was 
at that moment in the gubernatorial chair of Virginia as noble- 
minded and fearless a man as ever presided over the destinies 
of a State. He had served many years in Congress with 
distinguished honor, and sympathized strongly with the oppo- 
nents of the protective system. If John Floyd had been 
required to level the bayonets of Virginia at the heart of South 
Carolina, his course would have been marked by a seriousness 
and gravity worthy the occasion. Nor was Souti) Carolina 
altogether so powerless as she seemed to be esteemed at the 
moment. No man can foretell the results of a great revolution 
such as an armed invading force may produce. There is some- 
thing in an independent flag on the outbreak of civil war which 
attracts supporters, and volunteers might and most ])robably 
would have flocked to Charleston upon the first movement of a 
Federal army under the President. A darker cloud never 
rested over the Union than on the night of the passage of the 
Force bill. Such was my opinion then and such it continues 
to be. At that moment there was nothing visible to the touch 
but the drawn sword. A crisis in public afi^iirs had actually 
arrived, and I thought then and still believe that there was but 
one man in Congress who possessed the power to avert civil 
war; and I will not through a mawkish sensibility withhold the 
fact that whatsoever of influence 1 possessed was exerted lo 
induce that distinguished man, then a senator, to step forward 
and heal the discontents of the country. Right nobly did he 
enter upon the task, and meeting a corresponding temper and 
feeling on the part of Mr. Calhoun, then also a senator, the 
plan of pacification was promptly adjusted. And now I will 
say, notwithstanding all that may have transpired since which 
is calculated to impair my friendly regard for his memory and 
to diminish my esteem for him as a politician, that amid all the 
brilliant career of IVlr. Clay, the great monument to his fame is 
to be found in the Compromise Bill of the tarifl^, which through 
his great influence grew suddenly into a law. It was the oil 
which, poured upon the waters, stilled their agitation — the 
olive branch substituted for the sword — the dove which went 
out over the sea of passion, and returned with assurances of 



J 9 

harmony and safely. I well remember the electric light, of 
joy wtiicli beamed upon the countenances of all when he rose 
in the Senate to announce his purpose to present his bill. The 
House of Representatives, which had been torpid before, sud- 
denly awoke into action;— plan upon plan of compromise or 
modification of what were considered the obnoxious features of 
the tariff laws, all inefficient and unsatisfactory, were offered 
at the speaker's table. For a moment Mr. Clay paused in his 
course ; he adverted to the feeling manifested in the House, 
and expressed his preference to be, to permit others to take the 
lead in the matter ; but yielded to an earnest remonstrance 
against inertness on his part, and happily for his own fame and 
the good of the country, brought forward his great measure of 
pacifica(ion. That measure encountered the objection in the 
Senate that it was a monej^ bill and could not originate in that 
body, to avoid which Mr. Letcher, late Governor of Kentucky, 
was advised (o take a copy of the bill and move it in substitu- 
tion of all the schemes before the House. This he did, with 
the approbation of its mover, and it required only a few hours 
to pass it through the House, and coming to the Senate soon it 
grew into a law. Thus happily terminated a contest which was 
near bringing on a civil war; men who had almost held their 
breath for weeks before now breathed freely and easily. The 
sword which had been pointed at the heart of South Carolina 
was returned to its scabbard; and the proud Palmetto flag which 
in days of yore had been supported by the valor of Marion, of 
Pickens, and of Sumpter, still floated over a free and indepen- 
dent Slate. At another day that same flag, as it waved in full 
glory over the plains of Mexico, caught the gaze of an admiring 
woild, and impressed as I trust upon the heart and mind of 
America the principle that,' in differences of opinion that may 
and will spring up between the States, the last counselor should 
be the pride of power and the last mediator should be force. 
A government originating in compromise can only be maintained 
by compromise. 

To this rapidly succeeded contests in which great minds were 
engaged on either side in hostile array. That man of iron will 
still held the reins of Government, and the war waged on his 
administration was fierce and bloody. In the House of Re- 



20 

presentatives was heard, in loud denunciation, the eloquent 
voice of George McDufRe, which was re-echoed from the Sen- 
ate in deeper and more prolonged tones by Clay, Webster and 
Calhoun, each of whom in himself had power to stir up a 
continent — and yet there sat General Jackson in the chair of 
State, as tranquilly and unmoved as if no storm raged without, 
and all was sunshine around him. He had performed a tour 
through the northern and eastern States, and measuring his 
popularity by the vast crowds which hailed his presence at 
every stage of his journey, he resolved upon a measure which 
for a moment caused the greatest alarm and dismay among his 
most steadfast friends. In order to accomplish that measure he 
removed one secretary who differed, and appointed another 
who concurred with him in opinion. The lightning flashed 
and the thunders rolled, in and out of Congress, and yet noth- 
ing moved his stern resolve. Sustained by his newly appointed 
Secretary of the Treasury, who with a purpose as firm and 
resolute as his own, with a temper less liable to be disturbed by 
outbreaks of passion, and who resolved all questions by referring 
them to the ordeal of reason, he bade defiance to the storm 
which raged around him. And now let me do an act of jus- 
tice to myself, on this the first occasion which has ever presented 
itself, in regard to the part I bore on the nomination of that 
distinguished secretary. I possessed at the time no personal 
acquaintance with him, and should not have known him had I 
met him in the street. Had I then known him as I have since, 
in his exalted ofifice of Chief Justice of the United States, 
maugre any discrepancy of opinion which might have existed 
between us, there was no ofiice, however exalted, either in the 
gift of the executive or the people, for which I would not 
promptly have sustained him. I am forbidden to speak in 
praise of the living, and content myself with this explanation. 
Andrew Jackson was an extraordinary man. Possessing no 
varied stores of knowledge derived from books, and reared amid 
the hardships and perils of frontier life, there was yet no station 
which by the popular suffrage he was called upon to fill, that 
he did not dignify and adorn. As a legislator, he was at all 
times the advocate of the rights of his constituents; — as a judge, 
although not deeply read in the black letter of Lord Coke, and 



21 

guided chiefly by his moral sense, he gave in his decisions gen- 
eral satisfaction; — as a General, without tlie advantages of a 
mihtary education, he encountered and overthrew with un- 
trained mihtia, veteran Generals trained to arms from early 
youth, and commanding soldiers who had been conquerors in 
a hundred battles; and as President of the United States, he 
triumphed over an opposition amongst the most formidable that 
any politician ever encountered. Of his measures, or of the 
fruit which they have borne, it is not my purpose to speak. I 
shall be permitted to say, however, that "after life's fitful fever 
he sleeps well," occupying as he does deservedly a large space 
in the memory of the country. 

I should not have fulfilled my whole task if I failed to intro- 
duce upon (he canvass on which I have, as I fear, confusedly 
crowded men and things, the name of another who bore no 
inconsiderable part in the exciting scenes of General Jackson's 
administration. For the greater portion of the time that he 
presided over a great monied institution, his smile was courted, 
his frown deprecated, and liis opinion possessed on 'change. 
Oracular power ! His fiat regulated the exchanges of the 
country — and all other institutions of a similar character were 
subordinate to his will. Nicholas Biddle was for much of his 
time appropriately called the great money-king. But time ia 
allotted to all, and so it was to him. He sought to prolong the 
existence of the institution over which he presided after its fate 
had been decided, and its ultimate end was disastrous and over- 
whelming. It is not this, nor the denunciations which visited 
his name, nor is it the forgetfulness in which he sleeps at his 
own Andalusia, that shall prevent me from speaking of him, 
and in becoming terms. In 1819 I saw him for the first time; 
he was then in private life. He had accompanied Mr. Pinkney 
on his mission to Europe, and had but recently returned. To 
extensive reading, he had added the advantages of travel and 
observation, and Pennsylvania might well have looked upon 
her son with anticipated pride. Whether you regarded the 
wide range of his information, the classical eloquence of his 
conversation, or the accomplishments of his person or manners, 
you were compelled to admit that he was no ordinary man. 



•2'2 

The time, most probabi}'-, has not yet come for writing his 
epitaph. 

These great athletae, of whom it has been my pleasure to 
speak, have now all passed away, and but few of their asso- 
ciates survive. The will which controlled— the eloquence 
which stirred up men's blood — the logic which constrained the 
judgment— the learning wliich enlightened and the wit which 
enlivened debate, have all descended with their possessors to 
the grave — but still they freshly live in our recollection, while 
their deeds have become matters of history; and to that great 
ordeal I leave them, which canvasses )notives as well as words 
and actions. 

During the period within which I have circumscribed my 
remarks, how great has been the change in the condition of 
our country. When we compare the population of 1S12 with 
that of 1855; when we look to the table of exports and imports 
for the respective periods; when we count the number of our 
merchant ships, and look to the growth of our cities: when we 
behold the development of the mechanic arts, and the great 
multiplication of the products of the soil; and when, in addition 
to all this, we survey the vast expansion of our territor}^, what 
true American heart does not beat with a pride and pleasure 
inestimably great, and a love of countr}^ without limit and 
without bounds. In 1812, our population was less than 
7,500,000— in 1855, it may be stated at 27,000,000. In 1812 
we counted seventeen states and seven territories — in 1855 there 
are thirty-one states and nine territories ; while the area of the 
United Slates and their territories have increased from 820,628 
square miles, at the date of the government, to within a fraction 
of 3,000,000 in J 855. Such are some of the mighty changes 
we have undergone in a period of forty odd years. Rome in 
her day of power claimed to be the mistress of the world, and 
Alexander wept that he had no more worlds to conquer; and 
yet neither the one or the other looked down from their height 
of power upon possessions more extensive, or more fertile, than 
those which we enjoy. I mention these things not in a spirit 
of vain boasting, but for a ftir different and more interesting 
purpose; — it is to induce a still deeper impression of love and 



23 

venemlion for our political institiiiions, by exhibiting our coun- 
try as it was, and is, and will be, if we are (rue to the great 
trust committed to our hands, I listen to no raven-like croak- 
ings foretelling "disastrous twilight " to this confederacy. I 
will give no audience to those dark prophets who profess to 
foretell a dissolution of this Union. I would bid them back to 
their gloomy cells to await until the day shall come, which I 
trust will assuredly come, when this great Republic shall have 
reached the fullness of its glory. 1 will not adopt tbe belief 
that a people so favored by heaven, will most wickedly and 
foolishly *' throw away a pearl richer than all their tribe," 
No; — when I open the books of the Sybils there is unfolded 
to my sight, in characters bright and resplendent, and glorious 
and vivifying, the American Confederacy in the distant future, 
shining with increased splendor, — the paragon of governments, 
the exemplar of the world. If I misinterpret the prophecies, 
let me hve and die in my error. Let it rather be thus, than 
awaken me to an opposite reality, full of the horrid spectres 
of strong governments, sustained by bristling fortifications, large 
standing armies, heavy burthens on the shoulders of industry, 
the sword never at rest in its scabbard, and the ear deafened 
ever by the roar of cannon. No; — leave me for the remnant 
of my days the belief, that the government and institutions 
handed over to us by our fathers, is to be the rich legacy of our 
children, and our children's children, to the latest generation. 
If this be a delusion, let me still embrace it as a reality. Keep 
at a distance from me that gaunt and horrible form which is 
engendered in folly and nurtured in faction, and which slakes 
its thirst in the tears of the broken heart, and its appetite on 
the blasted hopes of mankind. 



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